Automatic Test Systems

The Department of Defense increasingly uses automatic test systems (ATS) to troubleshoot and repair complex avionics on DoD aircraft. Automatic test systems enhance mission capability, improve performance, and provide sustained results for DoD forces.

ARINC supports this effort through its advanced weapons engineering ATS services, which develop, acquire, modify, and sustain automatic test systems for military and commercial avionics customers. We currently support ATS for Air Force fighters, electronic warfare pods, and night vision targeting systems.

ARINC's flagship ATS program—the Improved Avionics Intermediate Shop (IAIS)—is a ruggedized, mobile, deployable automatic test system used to troubleshoot and repair defective black boxes on F-16 aircraft in the field. The IAIS series of testers also includes a LANTIRN LRU tester, the Electronic Attack Pod Common IAIS, and the Rackmount IAIS—a lower cost avionics test station for depot-based, nondeployable environments.

As the prime contractor for the U.S. Government for all IAIS systems, ARINC has overall responsibility for the design, fabrication, modification, testing, and maintenance of these units. ARINC serves as the primary integrator for IAIS hardware and software components manufactured by BAE SYSTEMS, Lockheed Martin Information Systems, and other vendors.

In addition to its hardware and software product lines, ARINC's ATS offering also provides on-site acquisition and sustainment support services for a variety of U.S. and foreign military sales weapon systems programs.

ARINC has been so successful in this arena that in 2001, ARINC members of the IAIS team were awarded the prestigious U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff Team Excellence Award. The award is the Air Force's highest honor for team achievement and process improvement. In addition, the expertise of the IAIS team has been repeatedly recognized, receiving the AFMC 2001 General Ronald W. Yates Team Excellence Award, the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers Best Management Award for 2000, and the Society of Logistics Engineers 2000 Field Award for Test Equipment Excellence.

Currently, the team continues to modify and update the current IAIS version to incorporate emerging technologies.